The
S-100 bus or
Altair bus,
IEEE696-1983 (withdrawn), was an early
computer bus designed in 1974 as a part of the
Altair 8800. The S-100 bus was the first industry standard
expansion bus for the microcomputer industry. S-100 computers, consisting of processor and peripheral cards, were produced by a number of manufacturers. The S-100 bus formed the basis for homebrew computers whose builders (e.g., the
Homebrew Computer Club) implemented drivers for
CP/M and
MP/M. These S-100 microcomputers ran the gamut from hobbyist toy to small business workstation and were common in early
home computers until the advent of the
IBM PC (which some of them outperformed).